Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
4/18/2014
Husky Energy and CO2 Solutions have entered into a collaborative agreement to install and operate a pilot unit that will employ CO2 Solution’s carbonic anhydrase enzyme-enabled carbon capture technology at Husky’s Pikes Peak South, Saskatchewan heavy oil site. The technology, which utilizes modified carbonic anhydrase enzymes in place of amine chemicals, is touted by the company as more environmentally friendly than an amine based system. The pilot is being funded, in part, by the government of Canada’s ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative program.
The pilot unit is estimated to capture 15 tonnes of carbon per day at the plant over the course of the six-month test. “Our technology is an enzyme based solvent, a solvent containing the carbonic anhydrase enzyme, which is the enzyme we have in our bodies to regulate CO2,” said Thom Skinner, Chief Financial Officer at CO2 Solutions “We’ve adapted that enzyme to industrial environments. We call our technology the industrial lung. Using this enzyme we can very efficiently capture and then release in a concentrated, pure form, the CO2 from a flue gas. In a conventional absorber-stripper architecture, which is what is used conventionally for post-combustion CO2 capture, we bring a carbonate solvent, a very environmentally friendly solvent, not an amine chemical solvent.”
The pilot is expected to begin in early 2015 and end with the completion of testing in the third quarter of 2015. At that time CO2 Solutions will publish the findings of the test and, granted a positive review of the pilot unit, the technology may be adopted for all of Husky’s commercial carbon capture projects.
